Saturday, June 11, 2011

Kyodo News Japanese reports that the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts has started the survey off the coast of Fukushima to study the extent of radiation contamination in the marine environment. No information in the Kyodo article as to since when the MBL has been doing the survey.

The MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the US, and one of the most prominent; to date, 54 MBL-affiliated scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize, among many other honors received by the laboratory’s researchers, according to Wikipedia.

The MBL, according to Arnie Gundersen during the interview with Chris Martenson the other day, has said that "the ocean has ten times more radiation from Fukushima than the Black Sea did from Chernobyl."

True to form, the Japanese government didn't bother to announce (it still doesn't) that it has approved the request for the survey, because, according to Kyodo News, "It's done by a US institution not by a Japanese one."

It was discovered on June 11 that a team of experts from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in the US has started the survey off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. The team will collect sea water samples and marine lives, and evaluate the effect on the marine ecosystem from the radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The Japanese government approved the request for the survey, but it continues to withhold the details because it is a survey by an American institution.

According to the surveys by the Ministry of Education and Science and other agencies and institutions, radioactive materials have been found in sea water and the ocean soil in wide areas. They've been found in fish and shellfish. However, the Japanese government hasn't started consolidating the survey data and evaluate the effect of radiation on the total marine ecosystem, letting the US lead the way.

Well, the Japanese government hasn't started it, because it doesn't want to. At least not right now. In fact, the government agency in charge of fisheries doesn't believe in "bioconcentration" or "bioaccumulation", and I don't expect them to do anything to disturb their belief system.

I hope the MBL will release the survey results for the benefit of the rest of us.

10
comments:

Anonymous
said...

"the ocean has ten times more radiation from Fukushima than the Black Sea did from Chernobyl."

This isn't a great comparison. The Black Sea is several hundred miles south of Chernobyl, but the radiation was deposited mostly to the northeast and to the west of the reactor. So if the sea off of Fukushima only has 10 times what was in the Black Sea, then that's actually good. But I suspect the "10" needs some zeros added to it.

Truth is right now we're all living on a small globe floating in space with an ongoing possible Extinction level event taking place. The ocean off Fukushima is nice and all that, but it's not going to matter very much if 5 years from now the background radiation of the whole planet is uninhabitable. You feel me? If they don't get these fuel pools and melted cores capped and they continue spewing radiation into the atmosphere and oceans we're all going to die somewhat very prematurely. This isn't a Chernobyl level 7, or a UN 'Level 8' we'd better make quickly make a new level to label Fukushima with, this is a possible Level 13 we fucked the entire planet and went extinct for some future space visitors to find and say 'holy crap what happened HERE?' Congratulations, you got to a member of the Evolving Idiots club that never made it to interstellar space travel.

Woods Hole has a very long history of leadership in ocean studies. They are as well connected to the US military as any US research entity and they are the 'go to' place if anyone in government needs to know something about what is happening in the oceans. So imho this is a sponsored bit of research, to provide independent data that will allow the marine consequences of this disaster to be correctly assessed.

An international team of experts led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution began the 15-day survey June 4. It is being carried out on a research ship from the University of Hawaii, with permission from the Japanese government, government officials said.

"The need to understand the amount, type, and fate of radioactive materials released prompted a group of scientists from the U.S., Japan, and Europe to organize the first multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research cruise in the northwestern Pacific since the events of March and April. A group of 17 researchers and technicians will spend two weeks aboard the University of Hawaii research vessel R/V Kaimikai-O-Kanaloa examining many of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean that either determine the fate of radioactivity in the water or that are potentially affected by radiation in the marine environment."

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About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

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